The Smartest Places on Earth audiobook cover - Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation

The Smartest Places on Earth

Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation

Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker

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ScienceTechnology & the FutureEconomics

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The Smartest Places on Earth
The Rise of Brainbelts+
Core Characteristics+
Smart Manufacturing+
Case Study: Akron, Ohio+
Solving Global Crises+
Support and Funding+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7
According to the text, what characterizes the new centers of knowledge and innovation known as 'brainbelts'?
  • A. They are located exclusively in major global metropolises with populations over 5 million.
  • B. They combine the practical skills of former industrial sites with the creative brainpower of local universities.
  • C. They rely entirely on offshore manufacturing to maintain low production costs.
  • D. They are primarily established by massive tech companies like Apple and Google in newly built smart cities.
Question 2 of 7
What is typically at the core of a brainbelt's collaborative ecosystem?
  • A. A large multinational tech corporation
  • B. A federal government regulatory agency
  • C. A research university
  • D. A venture capital firm
Question 3 of 7
Why are companies within brainbelts generally willing to share their knowledge and expertise with one another?
  • A. National laws mandate open-source sharing for all businesses located in designated rustbelts.
  • B. They lack the financial resources to patent their individual discoveries.
  • C. They are all owned by the same parent companies and therefore share a unified profit motive.
  • D. They are highly specialized, meaning their knowledge rarely overlaps, which minimizes the threat of direct competition.
Question 4 of 7
How does the 'smart manufacturing' used in brainbelts differ from traditional manufacturing operations?
  • A. It emphasizes customization and automation through technologies like 3-D printing and robotics.
  • B. It focuses strictly on lowering the hourly wage of factory workers to compete with overseas markets.
  • C. It relies entirely on offshore labor to assemble parts designed in Western countries.
  • D. It prioritizes mass production of a single, uniform product to maximize worker efficiency.
Question 5 of 7
How did Akron, Ohio successfully transition from a decaying rustbelt into a thriving brainbelt?
  • A. By abandoning its industrial roots and transforming entirely into a financial services hub.
  • B. By leveraging its remaining skilled workforce and local university to focus heavily on polymer and new materials science.
  • C. By offering massive tax breaks to convince foreign tire companies to relocate their headquarters to the city.
  • D. By converting its abandoned grain silos into massive server farms for Silicon Valley tech giants.
Question 6 of 7
Which brainbelt is highlighted for its agricultural innovations, helping its relatively small country deliver 7.5 percent of all global food exports?
  • A. The Hudson Tech Valley in New York
  • B. The life-science hub in Zurich, Switzerland
  • C. The Centennial Campus in North Carolina
  • D. The brainbelt surrounding Wageningen in the Netherlands
Question 7 of 7
According to the authors, what is a major challenge that brainbelts face compared to established tech titans like Apple or Google?
  • A. They suffer from a complete lack of creative brainpower and technical talent.
  • B. They are legally restricted from receiving any form of private investment or funding.
  • C. They are burdened by past industrial stagnation, abandoned buildings, and out-of-date infrastructure.
  • D. They refuse to collaborate across different disciplines like math and biology.

The Smartest Places on Earth — Full Chapter Overview

The Smartest Places on Earth Summary & Overview

The Smartest Places on Earth (2016) tells the story of former industrial powerhouse regions around the world that fell into decline but have since reemerged as centers of innovative collaborations. These blinks describe how countries in the West are using this model to challenge the cheap labor-oriented mass production model that has come to prominence elsewhere.

Who Should Listen to The Smartest Places on Earth?

  • Entrepreneurs everywhere
  • Business owners
  • Tech and innovation junkies

About the Author: Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker

Antoine van Agtmael is a senior advisor at the public policy advisory firm Garten Rothkopf, based in Washington, DC. A former financier, he coined the term “emerging markets” and founded the investment management firm Emerging Markets Management, LLC.

Fred Bakker is a recently retired Dutch journalist and former CEO, as well as editor-in-chief of Het Financieele Dagblad, Holland’s equivalent of the Financial Times.

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